The Wooden Doll
by agent000
Summary: All Al wants is for his brother to be home for Christmas. Al Ed wants is to be ABLE to be home for Christmas. They couldn't bear to have this be the first Christmas they had ever spent apart. Something drastic would have to be done.
1. Chapter 1

**_Yes, yes, another story. Forgive me. I couldn't resist. This one's a Christmas one anyway. Heh, it was originally going to be a oneshot, but it didn't seem to want to stay that way, so oh well, heh, we'll see how long it gets. Sorry that the first chapter's so short. I'll try to get the next one up by tomorrow if I'm lucky. Enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. I'm out of creative disclaimers. Feel free to suggest some._**

"Al!" Ed called frantically, waving his hands right in front of said brother's face, "Al? Stop ignoring me and say something." He paused for emphasis, and then stamped his foot as he said, "Answer me, darn it!" Still no response. It was as though Al hadn't heard a word he'd said. Ed sighed and rubbed his forehead in frustration as he watched Al turn his attention towards Winry.

That was it! Surely Winry wouldn't be playing the same stupid game that Al was. He proudly strode over to the part of the room where she sat. He put a wild look on his face, and then made a big show of jumping in front of her while shouting, "Winreeeee…" That should have elicited a chuckle or at least a what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-you face, but instead he was met with nothing. No response at all. Ed kicked at the floor in frustration. "Come on guys, this isn't funny."

Ed finally looked up into the faces of the two individuals who were doing such a good job of ignoring him right now. It seemed as if ever since he had gotten sick that they had stopped caring and paying attention to him. He could understand if his being ill had bothered them, but he wasn't sick anymore. Why couldn't they get over that? He placed a hand on the back of the chair that Winry was sitting in and bent over so that his face was right in front of hers. "Win-" he started to say, but stopped when he caught a good look of her face. That face wasn't one of mischievousness, or even one of boredom. It was one of sadness. A tear rolled down her cheek and landed on her arm. "Winry…what's the matter?"

Ed moved to wipe the tear away when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to find Al lighting the Christmas candles on the mantle. Ed rolled his eyes. It wasn't Christmas yet, so the only reason Al would be lighting them now would be to make a wish of some sort. For some reason, Al seemed to think that wishing on Christmas candles was just as effective as wishing on birthday candles. "Al," Ed said with a chuckle in his voice, "It's not gonna work. Just leave them for Christmas Day."

Al paid no heed, and continued to light the candles until all of them were burning. Al then placed himself in front of the mantle and closed his eyes. Ed shook his head and began to walk over to where Al was. Seriously, his brother needed to grow up.

When he neared Al, Ed was surprised to find the same look of sadness spread across his face too. What was wrong with these two, and why wouldn't they tell him? Ed paused where he was and just stared, trying to figure out what was going on. None of this made much sense. Suddenly, Ed heard Al's voice ring through his head, "I wish that Brother would come back for Christmas." Al then opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and blew out all the candles in one shot.

Ed smirked at the sight. "Al," he said, "What was that for? I'm right here!" Ed once again waved his hand in front of Al's face, which still went unnoticed, much to Ed's dismay. He growled. "Al, what are you trying to do, get rid of me? You know that saying the wish aloud will make it not come true!" Still no response from Al, so he turned his attention to Winry.

"What did you wish for?" said she. Ed perked up an eyebrow. Wasn't it obvious?

Al shook his head. "If I tell you, it won't come true."

Ed threw back his head and almost laughed, though it came out more as a scowl. "Oh please, Al, you blurted it out for the whole world to hear." Yet no response. Ed was really starting to worry. Something was seriously wrong. He thought back to when Al was wishing on the candles, how calm and quiet he had looked. Al hadn't moved a muscle while he was formulating his wish. But wait, if he hadn't moved a muscle, that would include his lips too, right? No, that wasn't possible. Al HAD to have spoken aloud. Either that, or Ed was going crazy.

He ran up to Al and tried to grab his shoulder; he had to get to the bottom of this. However, when he grabbed Al's shoulder, Ed's eyes opened wide as he saw his hand passed right through Al. Suddenly, everything clicked. Al and Winry weren't trying to ignore him, and he hadn't recovered from his sickness. He had died.

**_Hope that you liked that, in spite of the shortness. Leave me some feedback, and I'll try to update soon, okay? See you then!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Okay, this chapter's a little longer than the last one, heh. I'm trying to write these up quickly, since being a Christmas story, it's time sensitive. ((Obviously)) Hope that you still enjoy it. If there are any spelling errors, please forgive me. I don't have a lot of time to type these up, so I may not catch everything, heh. Also, to those that keep commenting on it, let me tell you this: I need to finish this story first because of the time sensitiveness, then I'll most likely finish "The Call of Atlantis" next, because I have the strongest connection to that one of any of my other stories, and then I'll most likely concentrate on "The Demon Within" once again. There, now you know, hehe._**

**_Disclaimer: Still don't have any creative disclaimers, sadly, but I don't own FMA._**

Ed put his hand in front of his face, and stared at it in horror. This hand had just gone through his brother's shoulder. Now he understood why Al and Winry were ignoring him. He was nothing more than an essence, a spirit, a ghost. It was almost impossible for him to believe, and had come as quite a shock. How could he have not been aware that he was dead? Was he dreaming? Something told him that he was not.

He turned his head to look at Al who had just taken a seat in a chair beside Winry. He felt a tear begin to roll down his own cheek, and he reached up to brush it off. Did ghosts cry? The teardrop fell from the corner of his chin and vanished in midair. Great, now even his tears weren't real.

"Winry," said Al. Ed's attention snapped back to the two people sitting in chairs. "Where do you think Brother is now?" Ed had to grab his throat to keep from choking on Al's words. Obviously, he couldn't get any more dead than dead, but the reflex to avoid choking himself to death was still there, if only for a short while longer.

"He's probably up in some beautiful place in the sky," Winry said, looking upward and getting a dreamy look in her eye. "He's probably looking down on us right now and saying, 'Don't cry for me. I'm happy, and I'm free. I want you to be happy too.'" Ed didn't resist this time and just let himself choke on his sobs. It wasn't like they were going to hurt him anyway. Winry hadn't been too far off. She had been wrong about where he was, but she had come pretty close to what he was thinking. He didn't want them crying for him, because when they were sad, he was sad.

Al got up and went and sat on the armrest of Winry's chair, and then he bent his neck over so that his head was resting on Winry's shoulder. She responded by wrapping one arm around his back and stretching the other around his front until the two met. They both closed their eyes and synchronously breathed together for a few minutes. Finally, Al spoke up. "I hope that I'll get to see him again…someday…"

Edward closed his eyes and uttered something akin to a combination of a cry and a gulp. He had to get out of here. The atmosphere here was too melancholy, so he couldn't stay here. He couldn't blame Al and Winry for having their spirits so low though. The three of them had shared an incredible bond, so it was only natural that they would be in such pain at this time.

He stepped outside for the very first time…at least, that's what it felt like to him. He learned very quickly that he had been wrong about Al not having any sense of feeling while being in the armor, because he could now tell that a spirit did indeed have such sensations. However, they were significantly different in nature to the senses that he was used to. They weren't physical at all. It was something that he couldn't explain…not like there would be anyone to explain it to.

Ed thrust his hands into his pockets and began walking in a random direction while at the same time being amazed that he was still clothed, even being dead. How did that work, anyway? There was no way for a spirit to actually wear physical clothes, and if there were, people would have been able to detect his presence due to the floating clothes. The thought of clothes took him back to a time when Winry had tried to force him to put on this purple dress with pink frills so that she could hem it up. He had adamantly refused and said that he wouldn't be caught dead wearing that dress. Upon thinking that, he looked down at his feet, only to find the view of them blocked by…the infamous purple dress! He lifted his face, closed his eyes and shook his head to rid himself of the images. He finally dared to open them again after a moment and he once again looked down at his legs. Ed breathed out a sigh of relief. Everything was back to normal. Apparently, the clothes a spirit word had something to do with the power of thought.

He continued walking in the direction that he had been headed, and soon found that his steps had led him right to the cemetery. As morbid as it sounded, he was actually kind of glad to be there right then. The idea of being at a place so reminiscent of death didn't faze him now as much as it previously would have. He was dead now himself. Perhaps being here would help him to let go.

He casually drifted through the graves, reading the names and dates on the headstones. Some names were instantly recognizable to him, since they had died in his lifetime, but others he had never heard of or met. He wondered what kind of life they had led.

Finally, Edward came upon a very familiar grave with a good amount of empty space surrounding it…obviously waiting for the rest of the family. His eyes fell to the name, and he felt a surge of warmth and love overtake him as he dropped to his knees in reverence. Trisha Elric. This was his mother's grave. He reached out and touched the lettering on the headstone, which felt strange to his new spiritual fingers. "I miss you so much," he whispered.

His gaze then shifted to the side of the grave. There was only one other grave near hers, and he felt a knot form in his stomach from the suspicion he was having of whose grave it was. Shaking like a leaf, he cautiously stood up and made his way over to the front of that grave so that he could read the words inscribed on it. As he positioned himself in front of said grave, he felt his mouth go dry, if such a thing was even possible, as he read the words, "Edward Elric, Hero of the People, 1899-1918."

Upon this sight, he sank down onto his knees and stared blankly at the words on the headstone. Up until now, he had been holding onto some fragile ray of hope that he hadn't really died, that he was just imagining things. Now, with this stone placed right in front of him that had his name written on it, he couldn't hide from the truth any longer. He was dead, no doubt about it. Edward found that he could no longer hold back the flood of emotions, and he brought his hands up to his face, ready to let his ghostly tears loose. It didn't matter. No one could see him anyway.

"Don't cry, Edward, everything will be alright." Ed snapped out of his brief episode of self pity as he felt a gentle hand being placed on his shoulder. His being began to vibrate, and he guessed that that was the ghostly counterpart to a racing pulse rate. He turned around to face the intruder and his jaw dropped. He was completely speechless. The intruder knelt down in front of the stunned boy and placed their hands on either side of his face. "You're a big boy, Edward, you'll be alright."

"M-" Edward could barely make his mouth cooperate, but his mind eventually won out. "M-Mom?" He looked into the woman's face and she smiled back at him. There could be absolutely no doubt about his death now that he was looking into his mother's sweet face once again. Somehow, this one aspect of death, of being reunited with his mother, seemed to redeem him from the pain of death and make it all worth it. He wanted to bury his head in her chest, and just cry for all eternity. Trisha's facial expression turned to one of understanding without Edward even voicing his thoughts aloud. She pulled him toward her and gently laid his head on her chest while stroking his hair. It felt so good to Edward to feel her touch again, almost too good. He wished he could just stay here forever and forget about everything else, but he knew that he would have to move on at some time, as painful as that thought was.

"Mom?" Ed spoke again. Trisha stopped stroking his hair for a moment, and gave her son her full attention. "Why…did I die?" He felt the sobs beginning to well up inside of him once again at the thought of being separated from Al and Winry by the veil of death. "How could a simple disease kill me? I've been through so much…and then I get sick once…" He didn't bother to finish his statement, but he didn't really need to. It was pretty obvious what he was getting at.

Trish bent Edward's neck so that he was looking up at her face, and she offered a sad smile. She resumed stroking his hard and got a far off look in her eyes. After a moment, she finally spoke. "You apparently caught a bad gene from me, Edward. You died the same way I did."

Edward sat up and looked into his mother's face. He had a confused expression cross his own face. Died the same way? No, that wasn't possible. He hadn't had his spouse desert him like she had. Apparently, Trisha once again read his unspoken thoughts, and said, "That's not what I meant, Edward. I had a condition that would cause me to get deathly ill if I succumbed to depression. Sadly, it looks like I've given you the same bad gene that killed me."

Edward averted his gaze from her eyes for a moment and looked down at the ground. As crazy as that explanation had sounded, it had made sense, in a way. He hadn't actually felt depressed enough to die, but he was fully aware of how much angst he held inside of him from all his excursions he and Al had gone through over the years. If he had really had a bad gene inside of him, that much angst could have very well been lethal. Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up, and he gasped. He looked up into Trisha's face once again, and said, "What about Al? Does he have the same gene?"

Trisha sighed, touched her fingertips to her forehead, and half-nodded. "I can't say for sure whether he does or not…but he took more after me than you did." She paused, as though not sure what to say, and turned to gaze off into the distance. She licked her lips, a habit she had apparently not dropped yet, and then said, "That's the main reason I sought you out so soon, Edward. We normally wait until someone is better adjusted before seeking them out, but if Al did indeed catch that gene…"

"…And then I go and die on him, causing him to get depressed…" Edward continued, though neither one of them bothered to finish the statement, merely nodding in affirmation to each other. They were both reading each other's thoughts fairly well right now, and they didn't need to voice anything aloud. It was obvious enough that they were both concerned for Al's safety. Naturally, they wouldn't have minded being reunited with Al, but they didn't want him to die before his time…or to leave Winry alone. Al was all she had, now that Pinako had died. Well, Al and Den, who was still managing to put up a good fight to ward off the grim reaper.

"What can we do?" asked Edward, turning to once again look into his mother's face.

Trisha smiled, getting an almost mischievous look in her eye that he had rarely ever seen in her. What was she thinking? He was going to have to master the skill of telepathy soon if he were going to get anywhere. "Under normal circumstances, we're not allowed to interfere in any way with the lives of mortals." She paused for a moment to make sure that Edward was paying attention and her mischievous smile grew broader. "But…I think we have a loophole this time. Al himself INVITED us to interfere. Remember his little Christmas wish?"

The knot in Edward's stomach returned full force, and he doubled over while trying to conceal a few sobs. "Yeah…he…he wished I could come home for Christmas."

Trisha reached out and hugged the poor boy, trying to comfort him. "Yes," she said, "And it would be a shame for a Christmas wish to go unanswered, don't you think?" Edward started and sent a questioning glance in his mother's direction. Could he really answer Al's wish? How would he go about doing so? Trisha leaned in closer to him. "You'll find a way. I'll be watching your back." With that, she planted a kiss on his forehead and vanished.

**_Hope that you liked that. Leave me some reviews, and I'd be most happy, hehe. I'll update as soon as I can. Take care, and see you then!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Heh, yeah, another chapter so soon. Amazing, isn't it? Well, I don't really have time to dally around, waiting for reviews, if I want to get this done before Christmas. At least I know that the story's really liked though, hehe. Anyway, hope you enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: Still don't own._**

Al bolted up to a sitting position in bed. What was that that he had just heard? His eyes darted around the room in a paranoid fashion at every little trick of light or rattle of a shutter on a window. He could have just been imagining it, but the wind seemed unusually intense tonight. Of course, it was really only wind, nothing to get worked up about. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders. How silly to get so worked up over a little wind. Just then, his ears perked up. There it was again, what had awoken him in the first place. He hadn't dreamt it. "Winry!" Al bounded out of bed and ran like mad to Winry's room.

Needless to say, poor Winry woke up even more paranoid than Al had, being rudely awakened by the frantic boy. Finally, she got her bearings about her. "Al, how dare you come in and scare me like that! What are you trying to do, give me a-" Al didn't let her finish her rant, but put his finger to his lips and told her to be quiet and listen. She stopped talking and tried to figure out what Al was getting at. The wind continued to howl outside and was banging the shutters furiously. After a few moments, Winry turned her attention back to Al and said, "It's just the wind, Al. Go back to sleep."

Al shook his head. He would not be dissuaded so easily. "No, listen closer."

Winry fussed a bit but decided to play along with Al's game for a little while longer. "What am I listening to?"

"Can't you hear a voice?"

"What voice?"

"Listen"

She listened. Strangely enough, the wind did seem to carry a voice with it, but that was just one of the weird things that the wind did on a normal basis, wasn't it? "It almost sounds like singing, but there aren't any discernable words."

"Tell me what you hear."

"What?"

"The sounds. Tell me what sounds you're hearing."

Winry sighed and rolled her eyes. Al was a real crackpot at times, but she loved him in spite of his quirkiness. Whatever game of his this was, she might as well see it through to the end. "Um…I think I'm hearing… 'Steal…a…knock'…That doesn't make any sense."

Al clapped his hands joyfully and Winry could almost swear that he had started dancing. He was obviously excited about something, but what? All she could hear was gibberish. "Yes, yes!" he shouted, "Do you hear anything else? At all?"

Winry shrugged. Al had obviously gone off the deep end when it came to one's sanity, and she didn't see any use in fighting it now. She listened to the steady hum of the wind outside before venturing to utter any more nonsense words. "All is…slaved?" she asked after a moment of listening to the gibberish in the wind. She turned to face Al, whose face was illuminated by the moonlight that was streaming through her bedroom window. He had his hands clasped together and was happily nodding, tears streaming down his face. Okay, it was time for some answer. "Al, what the heck does all that mean?"

Al weakly walked over to her bed and plapped himself down on the edge of it. He turned so that he could see her face, which was also illuminated by the moonlight. "Winry," he said as he brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, "Do you remember the strange way that Brother and I were talking to each other when we came back through the Gate?" Winry nodded. She had feared that they'd gone insane at her first thought, but quickly realized that their utterances had a certain form and structure belonging to an actual language, though she hadn't a clue as to what they were saying. Al grinned and then continued. "When we were in the country that spoke that language, I learn a certain Christmas carol that has since become my favorite. It was called _Stille Nacht_."

Winry gasped. _Stille Nacht_? That sounded almost like her interpretation of "Steal a knock". But…how could Al's Christmas carol that nobody in this world had ever heard possibly be carried by the wind? As she pondered, Al began to sing along with the voice in the wind, and as he sang, the voice in the wind grew louder…until she finally recognized it. Tears began rolling down her face as the two voices sung together in perfect harmony. She was surprised she hadn't recognized it earlier. She should have been able to recognize Ed's voice anywhere. Finally coming to terms with the phenomenon she was experiencing, she laid back and listened to the two sing.

_Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,  
Alles schläft; einsam wacht  
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.  
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,  
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!  
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh! _

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,  
Hirten erst kundgemacht  
Durch der Engel Halleluja,  
Tönt es laut von fern und nah:  
Christ, der Retter ist da!  
Christ, der Retter ist da!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,  
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht  
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,  
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'.  
Christ, in deiner Geburt!  
Christ, in deiner Geburt!

Finally, the song ended, and the two voices died down into nothingness. The wind continued to howl outside the bedroom, but it no longer carried Ed's disembodied voice. Al's face was wet with tears, and Winry's was just starting to be. She had thought she would never hear that voice again, yet she had, even if she hadn't understood a word that was said. "That was beautiful, Al. What does it mean?"

Al turned to face her, a quivering smile planted on his face, and free flowing rivers of tears still running down his face. "'Stille Nacht' means 'Silent Night'. I could teach it to you if you'd like." Winry smiled. She would like that, but there was no way she'd be able to concentrate right then. It was still pretty late, and sleep was getting the better of her.

She yawned. "It looks like I won't be able to stay awake long enough for a foreign language lesson, but would you teach it to me tomorrow? I'd really like to learn that beautiful carol."

Al stood up and walked over to her bedroom door. He put his hand on the doorframe and turned around to look back at Winry, who was still lying in her bed. "No problem. I'll teach you first thing in the morning."

Winry spread her lips wide in a smile and pulled her covers up to her chin, suddenly feeling warmer and more comfortable than she had in days. "Thanks, I can't wait. Goodnight, Al."

"Goodnight," Al replied as he left her room and shut her bedroom door behind him. He still couldn't quite wrap his mind around what had just happened, but he found it absolutely amazing, nonetheless. Somehow, he suspected that his brother had been trying to remind them that he was still with them, and wanted them to be happy. It had been a beautiful and powerful way to do so as well. He was extremely grateful for the contact, but he couldn't help but wish for more. He wanted to see his brother, hear his voice, and feel his touch. He wanted to be able to communicate openly with him.

Al walked over to a nearby window and threw it open. The wind from outside rushed in, fanning out the curtains hung in the window, and adding an icy chill to Al's skin. He knew that he shouldn't leave the window open for too long, since they couldn't afford to waste heat this time of hear, but he felt he had to do this, just for a brief moment. "Brother…" he called out to the wind, "I…I don't know if you can hear me…but I wanted you to know that we both love you and are grateful for your visit…and I was also wondering…do you plan on coming for Christmas?" As Al waited, the wind continued to howl, knocking the shutters about like it was threatening to smash them if they were left open any longer. Just then, he could swear that he felt a hand on his face, and he felt a surge of warmth flow through his body, in spite of the chill of the wind blowing on him.

Finally, the feeling of warmth left him, and he looked up at the shutters still frantically hanging onto their hinges for dear life. He reached up his hands to pull them closed when the shutters suddenly gained a will of their own and shut and locked by themselves. Al slowly lowered his hands to his sides and left his mouth agape. If that didn't prove anything about his brother's presence, nothing would.

Meanwhile, Ed stood outside; staring through the closed shutters at Al's shocked face. He smiled a bit, and then proceeded to answer Al's questions. "Al, I'm doing my best to find a way to come back to you for Christmas, so hang tight. I'm sure I'll find a way." He stopped talking to listen to the wind around him and to see if his words were having any kind of effect on Al. He didn't notice any response, but he was starting to get used to it by now, so he picked back up where he had left off and said, "Whatever you do, don't cry. Stay happy for me." Al still gave no response, as Ed's words were carried away by the air.

**_If you thought that a bit weird that Ed would sing "Silent Night", being agnostic and all, think again. If it's Al's favorite Christmas carol, then Ed's not gonna care what the content of the song is, hehe. It's a pretty song, nonetheless. Anyway, hope you enjoyed that. Leave me some reviews, and I'll try to have another chapter up tomorrow._**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Phew! This one took me some time to type up, heh...my chappies seem to be getting longer and longer, even though I have to write them out by hand first before I type them up. What sucks is that I wrote up another chapter today, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to type it up today, judging by how long this one took, hehe...oh well, I'll do my best. Hope you enjoy, regardless._**

**_Disclaimer: No own FMA._**

Edward didn't know what to do next. He had made contact with Al and Winry, most certainly, but that wasn't quite enough for him, not by his standards. He felt that he had an obligation to fulfill in coming back for Christmas Day. He still wasn't quite sure how to do that, but he suspected that there must be a way.

He walked away from the house in deep thought, trying to come up with solutions that didn't seem to exist. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard his mother's voice call to him. "Edward, come here." He looked around, but couldn't seem to find her. Hadn't she manifested herself somewhere yet for him to see? How could he come to her if he didn't know where she was? "Follow me," she said. Again, same problem. He didn't know where she was. He was about to call out to her when he took a step forward and found himself in a different place.

Edward rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things…not like that would have done much good, since his eyes no longer got tired, but it was yet another one of his habits that he would have to break. He looked around at the place where he now found himself. He seemed to be in a market square of some kind, as it was bustling with shops and carts and customers. Strange that, when he had left Winry's house a moment ago, it had still been dark. It was now light and appeared to be midday. Apparently, time had lost its grip on him, now that he was dead. That was kind of cool, actually. Maybe being dead wasn't ALL bad.

He walked down the cobblestone street a way, passing through various last-minute Christmas shoppers who were completely oblivious to his presence. He recognized this particular market square somewhat, but it wasn't as familiar as the one in Reisenburgh, so he knew he was in a different town, for sure. This actually appeared to be one of the towns he, Al, and Trisha would pass through from time to time when they would go to the nearest large city to buy something that couldn't be obtained in a small town. Okay, so now he knew where he was, but then the next question that begged an answer was why did his mother bring him here? He looked around again, shrugged, and decided to do a little more walking.

By and by, the wind picked up, and a piece of a newspaper came flying towards Edward's face. He put a hand up to block it, and amazingly, it stayed blocked. He smiled. He was starting to learn how to interact with physical matter. The fact that he could learn so quickly meant that he was a rather strong ghost, but that didn't surprised him. After all that he'd gone through, he had better have gotten strong from it.

A person walking along the street chanced to glance up and see the newspaper page being held back by an unseen force. With a cry of fright, she dropped her basket of goods and took off running in the other direction. Ed rolled his eyes and chuckled a bit. People were so foolish to fear ghosts the way they did. There was less to fear from ghosts than from living humans. He shook his head. Now to get back to his quest.

Ed grabbed the sheet of newspaper and opened it up so that he could read it. He had to concentrate very hard to continue to hold it and not drop it, and even reading wasn't as easy as it had once been. He sighed. Now he had two more things to miss: his hands and his brain. He knew that he'd learn how to manage in this new lifestyle…or rather, afterlife-style, but the road to learning was definitely going to be a bumpy one.

Ed's eyes widened as he read the headline of the newspaper, "Edward Elric, Hero of the People, Dead." Had he really been that important to warrant a front page headline? He honestly had had no idea that he had made that much of a difference. He continued to read the article, and found a few names mentioned of people from various trades who were making memorials to him. He wasn't quite sure whether to blush or to be proud, so he decided to feign pride. He carelessly threw the paper over his shoulder and said, "I'm going to go and see what kinds of memorials are being erected in my name."

He began to strut down the avenue in a somewhat pompous fashion, but soon came to realize that there was really no point in doing so, since no one could see him. Come to think of it, that was probably a good thing, since he had just been acting so foolish. He shook his head and sighed. He had barely known the time and place to act proud versus reserved when he was alive. Now, being dead, he REALLY didn't know. Maybe being invisible was for the best.

He continued walking along the same street until he ran into a small crowd lining the sidewalks and spilling out into the street. They couldn't all be there for him, could they? The thought seemed ridiculous, but curiosity got the better of him, and he began pushing through the crowd to find what they were looking at. Luckily, he didn't have to push people out of the way. He only had to pass through them, though the act of doing so caused the occasional person to shiver. Apparently, some people were actually sensitive enough to detect his presence, even if they weren't aware of having such an ability.

Finally reaching the front of the crowd, Edward peered around at the things the people were looking at. Sure enough, there people were all here for him, which was a bit creepy, actually. Various kinds of artists were positioned along the lengths of the sidewalks and were creating these memorials to him that he had heard tell about. A shiver ran through him. Hearing about it was one thing, seeing it was another. He would have thought that he, the great, mighty, and tall Edward Elric, would have loved to have all this special attention, but now that he had it, he wasn't so sure.

Edward walked up to a man who was chipping away at a piece of stone with a hammer and chisel. The man hadn't yet made a lot of progress on it, but one was able to discern a bit of a bodily shape that was sure to be a replica of Edward's own physical appearance one day soon. Ed crossed his arms. "It's not tall enough," he muttered, "At least get that part right." Of course, the man didn't respond, and just went right on with his work.

Edward shook his head in dismay and uncrossed his arms, choosing to continue walking down the street rather than stay there, being annoyed by this artist's inaccurate depiction of his height. He passed a lot of mediocre exhibits and finally stopped to admire an oil painting that one artist was doing. He actually couldn't find anything bad to say about it. It was even done as a simple portrait, so height wasn't even a factor. He stood and watched the man paint for awhile, having nothing better to occupy himself at that time.

"Hey, aren't you the guy in the painting?" Ed heard a little voice say. They couldn't possibly be talking to him, could they? He glanced around to locate the source of the voice and finally found it in a little girl no older than five standing just a few feet away. She seemed to be looking right at him, but how could that be possible? Could she see him?

"Um…Are you talking to me?" Ed pointed to his chest, and watched as the little girl smiled and nodded. So, she COULD see him. She was an amazing little girl. He scratched the back of his head, another habit he had yet to break, and proceeded to try and answer her question. "Heh…yeah…that's me in the painting."

"And is that you?" she pointed to a statue that was not far off whose shape was beginning to be discernable as Ed's.

"Yeah, that's me," he nodded.

"And that?" she pointed to something else, and Ed nodded yet again. The little girl then waved her hand around at the whole area and asked, "Is this all you?"

Ed chuckled a bit at that, since that was a funny way to ask a question, but it got the point across well enough. That was all that mattered. "Yeah, that's all me."

The girl seemed satisfied with that answer, so as if a switch flipped in her head, her questions switched too. "Is that doll you too?" Doll? What doll? He hadn't see any doll anywhere, and he'd been all over these sidewalks. The perceptive little girl apparently read the confusion on his face, because she turned around and pointed to a toy shop across the street. Okay, so this doll she was talking about must have been in that toy shop. He'd have to go over there and have a look…after he was done talking to his little friend here. It wasn't too often that he'd get the chance to talk to a mortal human like this, so he figured that he should make the most of it.

The little girl seemed to sense that he didn't know the answer to her question, so without further ado, she changed gears again and asked him a different question. "Mommy says you're dead. Are you dead?"

That question had caught Edward completely off guard, and he just stared at the little girl in silence for a moment. Leave it to a little kid to ask a question like that. They had no tact at times, but then, the question wasn't an offensive one either, just an unexpected one. "Um, yeah," he said "I am."

"What's dead?" Ed sighed and rolled his eyes. Leave it to a little kid to ask a tactless question and then not have a clue what they're asking even means. He didn't really care though. He opened his mouth to try and explain it to her when her mother came running up. She grabbed the little girl's arm and looked at her daughter with an irritated glare.

"I swear, you're going to end up in a mental institution someday if you don't stop talking to yourself," said the mother as the two marched off. The little girl managed to turn around and wave goodbye to Edward, and Edward promptly waved back. The mother seemed to have noticed her little girl waving at something, and so she jerked her arm and walked away at an even faster pace, wearing a disturbed expression on her face. Ed sighed and lowered his hand back down to his side. He wished he could tell that mother that her daughter wasn't just 'seeing things' like she thought.

Ed shook his head and turned his attention back to the toy shop across the street. He figured that he should check out that doll that the little girl was talking about. He didn't really know if it could help him in his quest to come back for Christmas Day, but it wouldn't hurt to look, after all. His mother had brought him to this town for a reason…probably because of this particular town's obsession with memorializing him. He should at least look around and see if anything gave him an idea. He crossed the cobblestone street and went through the door into the toy shop.

The first thing he noticed about the shop as soon as he had stepped inside was the smell of woodwork. Wow, he still had a sense of smell, even without a physical body. He touched his nose. Impressive. He never would have guessed that spirits had such an ability to perceive things like this. Ed glanced around the tiny shop at all the toys that were stocked on the shelves. They appeared to all be handmade, and most of them were made of wood. There were a few toys that were made of metal or cloth, but wood seemed to be the specialty of the place.

Ed finally drew his attention away from the walls into the center of the room where the actual action was taking place. An older man was standing up behind someone else sitting in a chair, and he looked to be scraping the back of the other person's head, like he was giving him a haircut or something…but why would a toymaker double as a barber? Edward crept closer, since he couldn't see clearly in this dark room, and he couldn't understand how the toymaker could. There was a swatch of black fabric, as well as some pins and needles, abandoned on the table in the center of the room in front of another chair. Perhaps the old toymaker had a wife and they both combined their various skills: he carved the dolls, she made the clothes.

Edward stepped up close to the old toymaker and was surprised to see that what he held in his hands was not a pair of scissors or a razor, but a chisel, and what he was scraping off the back of the head of the other person was not hair, but wood filings. Edward smiled. Of course! The other person was just a very large doll that the toymaker was working on. It was almost life size, about five feet tall he would guess, so in the dim light filling the place, it would be easy to assume that it had been a person, rather than a doll.

Upon closer inspection, Edward noticed the finely crafted hands that actually had the joints built into the fingers so they could be posed. He touched the delicate blonde hair. It didn't feel like cheap doll's hair. It felt more like human hair. Some girl had probably sold her hair to him when she got it cut so that she could have a little extra cash. He then traced his finger along the finely sanded and varnished face until he reached the eyes. They were beautifully made of glass and almost looked real…but wait, were those eyes golden? He blinked a couple times and then took a step back to get a better look. Indeed, this was the doll that the little girl had been referring to. It looked just like him…well, except for the height. It was only five feet, so it was like…twelve inches too short. He decided to let this one slip by though, because dolls were frequently made smaller than real life, and this one was so well done. Heck, the hands almost looked like auto-mail.

He stopped and caught himself on that last thought. Auto-mail? Ed turned down and stared first at his hand, and then the hand on the doll, meanwhile an idea was formulating in his head. He knew by now that he was capable of moving physical matter if he wanted to badly enough. He badly wanted to visit Al for Christmas. What if…what if he were to transfer his spirit into the doll? Would he be able to utilize it as a temporary body long enough to visit Al and Winry? He knew that wood probably wouldn't hold him for long, but he didn't need it to hold him for long, only through Christmas.

Ed walked back over to the doll and placed his hand over the doll's hand. This doll was seriously too short, but it would do for a short time, if this worked. He mustered up his energy and gave a push on the hand to see if it would give. To his delight, it slid back a couple inches. This would work. The toymaker noticed the movement and dropped his chisel and refused to move for a couple seconds. Edward chastised himself for having forgotten about the toymaker's presence there, but the man soon got over it and picked up his chisel to continue working.

Edward waited until the man set down the chisel and finally walked into the other room. This was going to creepy the guy out enough as it was; he didn't need to watch it happen. Ed crept over to the open door and carefully shut it, and then drew all the blinds down on the windows, not wanting anyone to see this. He continued to be amazed at how well he could interact with physical matter now, but he didn't have time to dally around impressing himself…or rather, he had time, Al didn't.

Finally satisfied with the dark state of the room, he turned his attention back to the doll. This was it. There would be no turning back now. He began to walk towards it when he heard footsteps coming from the other room. Great, he had to make this fast, and he'd never even possessed anything before. All the same, he had to try. With a running jump, he hurled himself into the air and then nose-dived down into the doll, being careful not to pass all the way through it.

The footsteps were coming closer. He had to hurry up and get out of here, but he couldn't even move yet. As quickly as he could, he stretched his arms and legs into the doll's arms and legs, and aligned his fingers with its fingers. He tried wiggling the fingers. They moved. Good, now to get out of here. He tried to stand up, only to find that he hadn't yet gotten full control of the legs. He labored unsuccessfully several times to stand up to no avail, and the footsteps were coming closer. He had to get out of there.

Just then, the door swung open, and without thinking, Ed swung his head around and looked. It was the toymaker, and he had a very angry scowl on his face. Ed began to vibrate at the sight of him, and he once again tried to stand up. The toymaker walked into the room, grabbed Ed's shoulder, and turned his wooden frame so that it was facing him. "Spirit, you will not have my doll!" The man then reached into his pocket and placed something in Edward's hand. Judging by the energy that suddenly shot through his body, he guessed it to be an amulet of some sort, though he didn't get the chance to see it. The energy from the amulet caused him to lose touch with the doll's body, so he couldn't move, plus he couldn't get past the energy field it had created, so he was also trapped inside the doll. "I won't let you escape either."

**_Hope that you liked that. And yes, forgive me for calling Ed and Al's hometown "Reisenburgh". I was slightly possessed by my ghost friend last night, and that's the spelling he likes best, so that's what came out, hehe. Anyway, leave me some reviews and let me know what you think, and I hope to see you back here again soon!_**


	5. Chapter 5

**_Wow, I managed to get this chapter typed up tonight after all, heh. Must be because this one's not as long as the last one, heh. Anyway, hope that you enjoy, and I'll do my best to get the next one written and typed up as soon as possible._**

**_Disclaimer: Still don't own, so don't ask._**

The toymaker took out a piece of string and tied Edward's left hand closed, still containing the amulet. He would have cried right then if he could have. Dignity didn't seem to matter anymore. He was trapped, after all. "There," said the man as soon as he had tied the last knot on the string and laid Edward's hand back down beside him, "You won't be going anywhere. Now I'm going to go and place a call to one of my friends that knows how to deal with mischievous spirits like you." The toymaker got up and began walking out of the room, all the while muttering, "You guys just never learn, do you? I won't take your tricks sitting down." The door closed behind the man, and Edward was left alone. He began to shiver inside of the doll's body, though it didn't cause any external effect, unfortunately. He was truly trapped.

How could this have happened? Al had always chastised him for not planning things through well enough. It only Ed had listened to him just this once. Now what was going to happen to him because of his reckless behavior? He knew he couldn't be killed, being a spirit, but he could sure as heck be tortured…like he was being tortured right now. He had tried a few times early on to break free from the restraints that now held him, but he had quickly given up on attempting any such maneuvers. Trying to move was painful.

The eerie silence in the room was broken only by the steady ticking of the clock that hung somewhere in the room. If he had been able to move a little bit, he might have tried to locate it. He counted the seconds that passed, amazed as how long it took to get from one second to another. Seconds had never been that long while he was alive. Time was truly just an illusion. Why had the toymaker gotten that angry? Did things like this happen to him a lot? Maybe his having tested himself by pushing the doll's hand in the presence of the toymaker had alerted the man to the situation.

Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, the toymaker and another man stepped back into the room and swooped down on him. Edward cringed. He hated feeling this helpless. What were they going to do with him?

"So, this is the doll the spirit possessed?" said the man who had accompanied the toymaker while tapping Edward's tied hand with his finger.

"Yes, that's it," said the toymaker, obviously in a very bad mood. "Go ahead and take that spirit and use it in whatever experiment your organization is doing, but make sure that you leave my masterpiece doll unharmed."

The other man smiled and grabbed Edward's chin, turning it so that Edward was forced to look into the man's eyes. "Edward Elric had somehow discovered the secret of fixation of the soul. Unfortunately, this knowledge wasn't spread around until after the boy had died, so my organization is working to rediscover the process. We have had some success." The man let Edward's chin go, and he stood straight up. He placed his hands behind his back and began to pace around Edward, causing the poor soul to feel more nervous all the time. The man stopped pacing and just locked a hard stare onto Edward. Edward began to shiver again.

"Since this spirits wants your doll as its body so badly, why don't we just give it what it wants?" The toymaker looked up at the other man with a shocked look on his face, and opened his mouth to protest. The other man put his hand up to silence him. "The doll would remain your property, and there's not a thing that the spirit could do about it, since it's easy to overpower a doll. You could advertise it as a living doll, and you'd get a lot of business just from people coming to see it."

The toymaker's gaze softened. That didn't seem like such a bad idea, actually. "Very well, do what you must, but don't cause any damage to the doll itself."

The other man smiled and strutted over to the back of the chair where the doll was still sitting, and began to tap on its neck. "I will need to carve an array into the neck here, but I won't cause any further damage to your doll, I promise." The toymaker tapped his foot nervously in hesitation, as if trying to make a decision. It was understandable that he wouldn't want any damage at all to come to his masterpiece. Finally, he looked toward the other man and grunted while nodding, and casually tossed a carving knife in the other man's direction.

The other man laboriously caught the knife and grinned. He looked to be one of those crazy alchemists who love his job a little bit too much. He placed the knife to the back of Edward's neck, causing Edward to shiver. He was now going to be bound to this body? That was not what he had wanted. He didn't want to live the way that Al had lived, especially since he didn't even have a body to return to. This was supposed to be a temporary possession, not a permanent one.

"Don't worry too much, spirit; this won't hurt you a bit." The man instantly began carving into the back of Edward's neck. The sound of the knife scraping into the wood that was a part of him make Edward feel sick. Finally, the scraping stopped and there was only silence for a few moments, and Ed wondered what the man was doing. His question was answered when he heard an "Ouch!" pierce the air. He knew that the guy must've just cut his finger and drawn some blood, since it required a bit of your own life force to bind another life force to an inanimate object such as this.

After a few more minutes of waiting, which Ed assumed was due to the man applying the blood to the array, Ed felt a stream of energy course through him from the back of the neck. So, this was it, the end of his freedom. He felt his spirit being pulled and twisted in every which way, and he was powerless to do anything about it. It felt like each part of his spirit was being locked in place, making him completely synchronous with the body.

Finally, the energy died down, and the man turned to face the toymaker. "When that blood dries, apply some varnish over it so that it doesn't come off, and so that he can't scratch it off. As soon as the varnish is dry, you can liberate him." The man looked towards the hand that was still tied shut. "If anything goes wrong, you've got my number." With that, the man picked up his things and left. Edward couldn't have been more grateful for someone leaving, but now he was bound to a doll's body. He was a living doll. How could he live with this?

The toymaker came over to Edward and grabbed his chin, tilting it so that Edward had to look into the man's eyes. "I hope this has taught you not to mess with mortals. We're smarter than you give us credit for." That, Edward couldn't deny. He had so recently been mortal, and his two best friends were still mortal. It had never entered his mind to think of mortal being as stupid. The only stupid one here was him, the immortal spirit.

After some time had passed, the blood was dry and the varnish was applied. When that dried, the toymaker came over to stand behind Edward, and he mockingly tapped Edward's blood seal to test if it was dry. "Well, are you ready to move again?" Oh boy, was he ever. These past hours had been the most torturous in his life…afterlife…whatever. "Just remember that if you cause too much trouble, I can freeze you up again like this anytime I want." Like he really would be able to forget that.

The toymaker gently raised up Edward's left hand and placed it on the table in front of him. He carefully untied the knots that were holding the string over Ed's hand. Then, he gently pried his hand open, and paused a bit before removing the amulet. The man took a deep breath. "Here we go." He grabbed the amulet and pulled it out of Ed's hand.

Edward suddenly sprung to life…literally. He actually jumped straight to his feet like he was afraid that if he didn't take action quickly, that he wouldn't get another chance. He lifted his hand up to where he was able to finally get a good look at them. He still couldn't deny the find craftsmanship on them. He flexed his fingers, which moved just about like normal fingers did, except that they were wooden. In all honesty, if he had to choose between this and auto-mail, he would have taken auto-mail in a heartbeat, but he hadn't been given that choice.

The toymaker crossed his arms and gave off a smug look as he said, "So, I gather that you like your new body?" Ed turned to look at the man, and would have glared at him had his facial features been willing to cooperate and move for him. He tried to resort to saying something to get his point across, but he could only muster a muffled sound at best. He hadn't taken into account the fact that the face was wooden and hadn't any moving parts. The toymaker looked amused at Edward's obvious frustration, and he said, "Look, I know that it's hard to talk through a wooden face, but it's not impossible. Just figure out how to channel your energy through your face and alter the cell structure to allow yourself to talk."

Edward could feel himself beginning to get steamed. This man was getting genuine amusement out of his misfortune! There was no more room for pity in his book. With all his concentration, he channeled his energy into his face, trying to alter the cell structure so that he could talk. It was really helpful that he had known alchemy. "I…hate…you," he managed to say with much effort.

The toymaker laughed. "Good, I hate you too." The man grabbed Edward's arm, spun him around so that he had the back of Edward's neck facing him, and then he grabbed him by the collar of the robe Edward was wearing, since his wife had not yet finished Edward's permanent clothes. The man pulled Edward over to a large glass case, threw Edward in it, and locked it. "You'll sleep here tonight…if you even sleep. I won't have you damaging yourself." The man then went and flicked off the light and moved to the door separating one room from another. "Goodnight," he said, and then shut the door behind him. Edward placed his hands on the inside of his new glass prison and then rested his forehead against it as well, letting a few sobs escape. Good night indeed.

**_Yeah, yeah, I know, evil cliffie. I'll try to update soon, okay? In the meantime, leave me some reviews. Makes me happy, hehe. In any case, take care, and hope to see you again soon!_**


	6. Chapter 6

**_Heh, I FINALLY got this chapter written. Sorry it took so long. ((Two days is a long time now? Huh...I'm weird, heh. But I guess it's a long time when I've been trying to get two chapters a day.)) I've been getting rather tired lately and couldn't keep up at my own pace. Sigh...hope I finish this story before Christmas...we'll see._**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, and I'm too tired to come up with a creative disclaimer. Heh...I own a cat, does that count? Well, it wouldn't make me own FMA, since that stands for FullMetal Alchemist which refers to Ed...but it makes me more like Al, doesn't it? Heh, now I'm rambling. Blah._**

The night passed by very slowly, his only companion being the ticking clock which he had still not been able to locate. There was barely any room inside the glass case, but he managed to slowly inch himself down to a position where he was sitting on his legs. He was so glad that this doll body didn't have any nerve endings in it, or he'd have been quite uncomfortable right then, never mind the fact that his spirit was already incredibly uncomfortable inside this wooden prison. Now he knew how Al had felt during those years in the armor.

Edward barely noticed when the sun finally began to come up, especially since the little toy shop was so dark. He heard some rustling on the floor above, and he guessed that the toymaker must have woken up. The man had never actually left the building during the night, so it was only logical to assume that he lived there, on the second story of the building. Ed sighed. He did not want to see that man who had trapped him in here in the first place.

Ed perked up his ears as he heard footsteps approaching. His first thought was of the toymaker, but then he realized that these footsteps were much too light to be his. Maybe they were his wife's. Ed had never met the wife. At last, the footsteps ceased and the doorknob turned, causing the door to creak open. In stepped a pudgy little woman, dressed in old fashioned clothes, and had her hair up in a bun. She looked a lot like the stereotypical grandmother who always spent her days baking cookies and knitting mittens. She stepped into the room and looked around for a few moments, like she was trying to spot something, and then had a smile cross her face as she spotted the black swatch of fabric on the center table.

This woman certainly looked gentle enough. Ed placed his wooden hand on the glass of the container he was in and tried to remind himself how to speak while in this wooden body. His best efforts only came out as a muffled form of the letter 'M', but it was enough to get the woman's attention. She looked up at Edward and her mouth dropped open. She was obviously startled by his presence. Her husband must not have told her about him yet. Ed dropped his hand back into his lap and looked pleadingly at the woman. All he wanted was to get out of this cage he was in. He had attempted breaking out with alchemy during the night, but he wasn't yet fully at one with this body, so it hadn't worked. He must've done a pretty good job when he had affixed Al's soul to the armor, because Al had never had any trouble performing alchemy.

The woman walked over to the front of the glass case and looked at Edward, confusion filling her face. "Who are you?" she asked. Edward tried to speak and explain things to her, but he was having a very unsuccessful time in doing so, so he switched to hand signals. He pressed his hands up against the glass so that she could see that he was indeed the doll he appeared to be, and then he started waving his hands around frantically, trying to tell her what had happened. She only ended up looking more confused, so Ed sighed and tried explaining again, but only managed to keep hitting the sides of the glass case with his hands. He knew that he should probably quite before he damaged something and the toymaker found out.

The woman remained silent for a moment and then finally said, "Are you a possessive spirit?" Ed didn't really know why these two were always able to figure out what he was so quickly, but all the same, it was such a relief to have her finally know what was going on. He nodded his head and then twisted his head around so that she could see the blood seal. Her mouth once again dropped open. "Is that…is that alchemy?" Ed whipped his head back around to face her and he nodded furiously. The woman responded by clenching her fists at her sides and turning her gaze into a death glare.

"Who did this to you? That's just…that's just plain cruel!" Ed sighed. He was tired of trying to explain things with his hands, especially with him being in such close containment the way he was. The woman nodded as though she understood what he was saying even without him saying it. "You just want out of there, don't you? I don't blame you. I'll go find the key."

Without another word, she was off, and Ed sighed in relief. He was FINALLY going to get out of this glass prison. Thank goodness the toymaker's wife was more understanding than the toymaker himself. In a matter of minutes she was back, a shiny gold key in her hand. Eagerly, Ed placed both his hands on the front of the glass case and waited. The woman slipped the key into the lack and turned it, causing it to pop open the door of the glass case. No longer having anything to lean on, Ed lost his balance and fell out onto the little woman, knocking them both to the floor. Energy rushed to Ed's head, and he felt like he was blushing in spite of the lack of blood in his system. "S-Sorry," he stammered, and then gasped when he realized he had just spoken aloud.

The woman's eyebrows shot up as she turned to look at Edward. "You can speak?" Ed tried to say something in response, but once again failed. This was getting incredibly frustrating. The woman patter her hand against Ed's wooden cheek, smiled, and then picked herself up off the floor. She then reached down and grabbed Ed off the floor, picked him up, and dusted him off. He was surprisingly light for his size, but then, he WAS made of wood. The woman looked up at him again and smiled. "I don't know how in the world you were able to speak with that wooden face, but you seemed to be able to do it as soon as you got embarrassed enough."

Ed felt like he was blushing again, as all the energy had suddenly rushed to his head from the memory of knocking the poor old woman over. "Um…yeah, I guess." He did a double-take. He had just spoken again. Strangely, he didn't seem to be aware of speaking until after he was done with whatever he was saying. Apparently, speech just seemed so natural to him that he didn't notice it immediately, even if he found himself in a rather bizarre situation like this.

The woman smiled again, and gently placed her hand on his cheek. "Have you figured out what it feels like to speak yet? Try to emulate those feelings." Ed stared at the woman blankly for a moment while trying to collect his thoughts, and then he gave her a half nod and pulled hi face away from her hand. All the previous times he had spoken through this face, he had been filled with strong emotions which had cause energy to rush up into his head. This would be the first time he had ever attempted it without the accompanying emotion.

He mentally scanned his body to locate the energy within it, and then consciously began to try pulling some of that energy up into his face so that he could alter the cellular structure and make speech possible. It was similar to performing a transmutation for him, which was why he was able to figure it out at all, but all the same, it was no easy feat. He got so much energy to flow up into his face that he began to feel a bit light-headed. He placed a hand on his forehead and said, "Oh, my head!" Without warning, he started to feel a bit woozy and would have tipped over had the toymaker's wife not caught him.

"You're doing fine," she said, "Just learn how to control yourself so that you don't get dizzy, but try to keep it easy for you to speak at the same time." Ed closed his eyes for a brief moment, also due to the fact that he was able to alter the cellular structure of the wood, since the eyes were set in place. He performed another mental scan of his energy, and began draining some of the excess out of his head. He didn't want to lose what he needed for communication however, so he modified the cellular structure of the wood a little bit so that it would be easier to conduct energy through it. Finally, he opened his eyes again. "Feeling better?" asked the woman.

"Much better, thank you," said Edward as he picked himself up out of the woman's arms and brushed his hand against his clothes as though trying to dust himself off and regain a little dignity.

The woman came up to Edward and placed her hand on his shoulder. She seemed a bit sad all of a sudden. "Are you able to speak now?" Edward nodded and waited for her to continue. She licked her lips in a sense of unease, and hesitated before going on. Her grip on Edward's shoulder tightened. "I ask again…Who did this to you?"

Now Edward had a vague idea of why she was so nervous. He honestly couldn't say he blamed her. The situation he was in wasn't pleasant for anyone involved. "I, um…" he began, not sure how to tell this sweet little old lady what a jerk her husband was. "The uh, the toymaker…I think he's your husband…he arranged to have me bound to this body with the aid of an alchemist friend of his, and then he locked me in that glass case overnight so that I couldn't get away."

The woman's hand slipped off his shoulder and her gaze drifted to the ground. She heaved a sad sigh, and then made a motion for Ed to sit down with her at the table. They did so, Ed crossing his arms on the table, and the little woman sitting in a sad, slumped over position. "I'm so sorry," she said. Her voice sounded like it was about to break. "He must have gotten furious from seeing that you were trying to possess his masterpiece doll. I assume that that was what you were doing."

Edward nodded, and then leaned over the table a bit more so that he could rest his chin on his hands, though that was a bit difficult. Without a spine, his back was annoyingly stiff. "Yes, I was," he said, "But I had my reasons for doing so. He had no excuse for doing what he did." The woman took a handkerchief out of her pocket and batted her eyes. Maybe he had been a little too harsh, even though everything he had said was true.

"No, he didn't have any excuse for going that far, I agree." She paused for a moment and turned to look at Edward's bored face. She sighed. "We've had so many bad experiences with spirits that it's not even funny. I guess that you showing up was the last straw for him, and he flipped. I'm so sorry that this happened to you, especially since you don't seem to be that much of a mischievous spirit to me." She stopped talking, and Edward sighed, seemingly getting more bored all the time. The woman frowned at the sight. The poor spirit-possessed doll before her looked so pitiful. "Is there any way I can make it up to you?"

Suddenly, Ed's face lightened up. He sat up straight and offered a half smile. "Actually, yes there is. The whole reason I possessed this doll in the first place was so that I could go home for Christmas. Please, just let me leave for a few days to see them once more. That's all I ask." A tear slid down the woman's face. One could easily see that she genuinely cared about the poor boy's fate. She opened her mouth slightly as if to speak when they were both interrupted by footsteps coming into the room. Both parties looked up to see the toymaker looming over them. Edward shivered. He really didn't like that guy.

The toymaker strode over to Edward and grabbed his shoulder firmly, which made Ed uncomfortable, even though he couldn't physically feel it. The toymaker looked down at the boy and said in a gruff voice, "You're not going anywhere."

**_Hope that you liked that chapter, even though it ended a little abruptly, sorry, heh. I was trying to get something up today. Feel free to let me know your thoughts. Take care, and hope to see you again soon. I'll try to get another chapter or two up tomorrow._**


	7. Chapter 7

**_Okay, managed to get another chapter out. If I'm lucky, the next one will be the last one, and I'll make my goal of finishing this story before Christmas. Yeah! Sorry that I had to rush through this story so fast without fully fleshing everything out, but it was so time sensitive, heh. Maybe I'll get the time and the desire to rewrite it someday while fully fleshing it out like it should be. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this story thus far, and I hope you like this chapter, and the final one when I write and upload that._**

**_Disclaimer: Yup, just what it looks like. It's a disclaimer. What did you think it was?_**

"Hey, Al, whatcha reading?" asked Winry as she walked into the dining room, carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. She hadn't been bothering to prepared real meals ever since Ed died. She had had no motivation to do so. Luckily for the both of them, understanding neighbors had been dropping by from time to time and giving them casseroles, baskets of fruit, and in this case, donuts. They weren't sure how they would have gotten through this painful time without their neighbors' help, especially considering the time of year it was.

Al looked up from his newspaper at the girl, slightly confused as to her identity for a brief moment. Oh, it was just Winry. Time to drink more coffee if he could forget that. "Good morning, Winry," he said as he then proceeded to take a swig of his coffee. There, now he was starting to finally wake up. He looked back up at Winry. "I'm reading this really weird article where some people are claiming that some doll over in the next town came to life."

"Really?" said Winry, suddenly awake and intrigued, even though she hadn't partaken of her coffee and donut yet. "Lemme read!" Without warning, she snatched the paper out of Al's hands and instantly submersed herself in reading. Al let out a sigh in protest, but seeing that she didn't respond, he just decided it would be easier to let it go. "Wow," said the girl, not breaking eye contact with the paper for a moment, "The craftsmanship of this doll sounds amazing! It sounds almost like a wooden version of auto-mail. I think we're gonnah ave to go and see it!"

Al was taking another sip of his coffee right then, but he almost spit it out when he heard that. Had Winry flipped? "Wait, you don't seriously believe that there's a living doll in reality, do you?"

Winry finally broke eye contact and looked up at Al with one of those faces that made one feel stupid, though Al couldn't figure out why. "I've seen living armor, why not a living doll?" Al squirmed in his seat. He couldn't argue with that. Winry went back to her reading. No one said anything for a few more Moments while she finished the article.

Finally, she looked up from her reading at Al. One could have sworn that her eyes were sparkling and she sighed contentedly. Was she still comparing that doll to auto-mail? Leave it to her to put two unrelated subjects together like that. "I need to see that doll," she sighed, "I need to take it apart and study it…well, maybe not take it apart, since it's a living thing…but still, I need to study it and find out what makes it tick."

Al swirled the last bit of coffee in his cup. "If this doll is truly alive, then I can tell you what makes it tick without our making the trip. It's alchemy, Winry, it has nothing to do with auto-mail." Al drank the last sip in his cup and then poured himself another cup of coffee.

Winry threw her hand in Al's general direction as if trying to brush him off and turned her face away. "You just have no sense of adventure."

Al raised an eyebrow and looked at Winry. "That's adventurous?" Winry shrugged and tried to come up with possible excuses about WHY such a trip would be adventurous, but Al's attention quickly drifted off to other matters that he found to be more entertaining than the prospect of wooden auto-mail.

Winry didn't even seem to notice Al's lack of attention for some time. When she finally did, she put her hands on her hips like she was offended and looked about to scold when suddenly a mischievous grin crossed her face. "Hey, Al," she said, causing Al to finally give her his attention now that she'd used his name, "Wanna go on a doll heist?"

Al spit the coffee he had been drinking back into his cup. "W-W-What? Winry just continued standing there, staring, like she knew that he had heard correctly, and was just waiting for him to admit it to himself. "You…You can't be serious."

Winry leaned closer to Al and put her chin on her face while her penetrating blue eyes gouged into Al's soul. "I'm always serious." Al shivered involuntarily. Seriously, Winry had flipped. She'd gone off the deep end, and here everyone had thought of him as a crackpot! The death of a loved one did strange things to you. Still, he needed to think of something, fast.

"Um…well…we can't take that doll, it belongs to someone else."

Winry stood up and turned as though walking away, but allowed her neck to twist around so that she was looking at Al. "Oh? Would you have admitted to that while in the armor?" Al squirmed again. She just had to keep mentioning the armor, didn't she?

"Um, well…Along that line, we wouldn't want to take it against its will. It's probably perfectly happy there and-"

"No, it's not," Winry interrupted, "It's quite unhappy. We'd be doing it a favor by getting it away from there. You would have known that had you read all the way to the end."

"You took the paper away from me!"

"Whatever," Winry waved her hand in a dismissive manner, "I'm gonna go get ready. We leave tonight." With that, she walked out of the room, all the while, Al was trying to protest, but not getting very far.

Al sat satring after her for a moment, wondering what the heck he was going to do, and then he let his gaze drift back to his breakfast dishes. He sighed and grabbed a napkin and a pen, and said, "Alphonse Elric, I think that you need a language lesson too. For your first assignment, you are to learn the meaning of this word." He took the pen and wrote two letters on the napkin: N-O.

* * *

"But Christmas is only a few days away! Why won't you let me go just for that time?" Ed was obviously irritated and made no attempt to hide his feelings from the toymaker.

The toymaker gave an exasperated sigh and turned to face Edward. "Need I explain it to you again? One, I don't want any harm coming to that doll body of yours. In case you've forgotten, it's my masterpiece. Two, I can't take the risk of setting a potentially dangerous spirit on the loose."

Ed rolled his eyes, a trick he'd managed to master in the time that he'd been in this doll's body, and he placed his hands on his hips. "Potentially dangerous, my eye! I've already told you a thousand times who I was!"

"Yes, and you've given me no reason to believe a word you say," the toymaker growled, "In my experience, spirits are often liars, especially when they pretend to be someone famous, like Edward Elric."

"But I'M not LYING!" Ed stamped his foot for good measure, though it didn't elicit the desired response from the toymaker. They'd been having these arguments all the time lately. Ed couldn't escape because he was too easy to recognize as a doll, since his face was varnished, not painted, to let the natural wood grain show. He couldn't break free if he got caught because this doll body had absolutely no fighting ability and he couldn't use alchemy. He couldn't visit home due to the wear and tear it would cause on his body and the possibility that he might make trouble. He wasn't even allowed access to a phone or writing materials to attempt to make contact with home. The toymaker had justified that by saying that the dead are supposed to stay dead and contacting his friends and family would mess up their grieving process and open up new wounds.

"Whatever," said the toymaker, not caring anymore, "It's bedtime." Ed rolled his eyes and sighed. The toymaker went and picked Ed up and placed him in the glass case and once again locked the door. That was one things that the toymaker's wife hadn't been able to get anywhere with, though she persistently tried to find a better way for him to spend the night. Ed had quit struggling whenever the toymaker would pick him up to put him in the glass case. Struggling just made things worse, and that toymaker had a temper worse than a hot chili pepper.

Ed sat calmly in his little cage, waiting, counting the ticks on the clock, which he now knew to be on the west wall, and silently wishing that he had stayed dead like all good little spirits are supposed to do. He didn't know how long it had been, but he suddenly looked up and noticed that someone was standing outside of one of the windows on the opposite end of the shop. The curtains were drawn, so he couldn't see clearly, but he knew someone was there, and that wasn't normal. He waited to see what it was that they were up to. Before long, he heard some scraping sounds coming from the general vicinity of the window. Were they trying to pry the window open? Should he alert the toymaker to the situation? Nah, if this person was planning on stealing from the toymaker, then why not let them do it? He was hardly the guy's guard dog or he'd be running around loose. Besides, a little robbery would be such sweet revenge.

The whole time that Edward heard the scraping sounds come from the window, the person managed to stay as quiet as possible. It wouldn't have even woken a person up from sleep, actually. Finally, the persona gave a tug on the window, and it came out. Ed had to conceal his laughter about how easy this place was to break into.

A shadowed figure climbed in through the window, and Ed seemed amused until he saw the figure carrying what appeared to be a six foot burlap sack…big enough to fit him in. Come to think of it, he was the only thing of great value at this shop. He hadn't thought about that before. His hand started shaking involuntarily as the figure crept through the shop, obviously looking for something. Ed's hand started shaking really badly. He kept telling himself the he wasn't afraid, that it was just a common burglar and that he'd deal with worse, but the truth was that he was defenseless right then, and would actually have preferred the toymaker over a burglar. At least the toymaker cared enough to make sure he stayed in good condition.

His hand jerked and lightly tapped the side of the glass case he was in. It barely made any noise, but it was enough to get the burglar's attention, because they stopped for a moment and stared, then pulled a couple things out of their pocket and began walking directly to the glass case. Ed tensed. Now he was done for. Who knew whose hands he was going to end up in after tonight?

The person finally reached the glass case and began picking at the lock. About that time, Edward remembered that he could try to wake up the toymaker and his wife to get help. Heck, it was one thing if petty things got stolen, but it was a big deal if HE was the stolen property. He opened his mouth to yell when the person got the lock undone and switched tools in their hands. They turned to Edward and said, 'If you make any noise, I'll carve out your blood seal," and held up the chisel that the deed would supposedly be done with. Ed's jaw dropped open. If he lost his blood seal, he'd never get the chance to see Al and Winry, as much as he hated that blood seal. He clamped his mouth back shut and refused to utter a word.

The figure opened the glass door, grabbed a hold of Edward, and quickly shoved him head first into the burlap sack that they were carrying. They then cinched it up, threw the bad over their shoulder, and left the way they came, making a clean getaway. Obviously, quite an expert at breaking and entering.

Poor Edward was so confused while still tied up in the sack all the way back to wherever this burglar's hideout was. He couldn't tell how long it had taken, but it had seemed that they'd traveled quite a way before they'd finally stopped. He had no real concept of time since he had died, and he hadn't gained it back in being bound to this body. All the usual indicators of passing time, fatigue, hunger, and so on no longer affected him.

At last, he felt someone grab a hold of the bag he was in and once again hoist it over their shoulder. Well, at least he was going to get out of this bag soon…he hoped.

He soon felt the bag set down on a floor in some building, and he heard the nervous chatter of a couple of voices outside of his burlap confinement. Those voices sounded strangely familiar actually…but he had to have been imagining it.

Finally, the ties on the bad were loosened, and Ed wriggled around inside of it until he was facing the right way. He popped his head and shoulders out of the bag with a sudden burst of energy, and then stopped…as everyone gasped. "Al? Winry?" he said, looking around.

"Ed?"

"Brother?"

Needless to say, there was going to be a lot of explaining to do.

**_Hope you liked that. Leave me some reviews and I'll try to update as soon as possible, okay? Thanks to my faithful readers/reviewers who have followed me thus far. I really appreciate it. See you soon!_**


	8. Chapter 8

**_W00t! I met my goal of finishing this story before Christmas! Phew, that was tough to write a whole story in less than a week, but I managed it. Hooray for me! Hehe...anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter._**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist, but I've put in my application for Ed. I know that a lot of other fangirls have done so as well, but I've got a better chance of winning, since I didn't drool on the application like the rest of them did._**

"Al-Winry-Surely…" Ed's voice trailed off. He didn't know what else to say. Oh, he knew what he was trying to ask, but putting the concept into words was a different matter altogether.

"Ed?" Winry came over and touched Ed's head, which was quivering from the shock of all that happened in the last few hours. "Ed, is that really you?" Edward refused to say anything, but chose instead to just stare at the girl in pure silence. This wasn't like Ed to not say anything, not normally anyway…but then, there was nothing normal about this situation at all. Perhaps his silence was justified.

Al approached the still quivering doll and said, "Brother?" Ed's eyes turned from Winry to Al, and once again, he fell into silence. His lips moved from time to time, but they didn't utter any words. Al knelt down in front of the confused boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Brother, you can relax. It's just us."\

Finally, Ed's lips loosened up. "A-Al? W-Why am I here? Why…Why did you kidnap me?" Ed's eyes looked down to the floor, not willing to receive an answer yet due to some remaining unasked questions. A sob escaped him, but he continued to stare at the floor. "Why didn't you tell me it was you, so that I wouldn't be afraid? Why did you threaten to carve out my blood seal to make me shut up? Why, Al, Winry, why?" Ed closed his mouth and stopped talking, and everyone could tell that he'd finally gotten all of his questions asked, but he was still shivering. No one, not even Edward, had counted on this whole experience shaking him up that much.

Al and Winry both came close and wrapped their arms around Ed's wooden frame. They still loved him, even in this form. Ed had always known that they would, but it was such a relief to see it in action. Ed's shivers began to diminish, but were replaced with sobs. He'd had no idea that things had bothered him that much. Normally, just one incident like this wasn't enough to cause any major reaction from him, but this was the result from all the pent up emotions over the past few weeks. He had never gotten around to letting them out. Now, finally, in the company of his closest and dearest friends, he could do so.

After some time had passed, Ed's sobs ceased to be, and the three were just calmly sitting together, waiting for someone to break the silence. Al finally let go of Ed and cleared his throat. "Sorry about the whole kidnapping thing, Brother." Al turned to glare at Winry, "It was HER idea."

"Hey!" Winry shouted, grasping at whatever strands of dignity she might have left, "You agreed to it!"

"Not willingly."

Ed gave a half smile and almost chuckled. "So, I see that Al hasn't learned how to say 'no' yet, but whatever possessed you, Winry, to attempt the abduction in the first place?"

Winry faltered, twiddled her thumbs, and tried to come up with some explanation. Ed and Al stared at her nervous figure for a moment before Al turned to Ed and said, "She's been going crazy ever since you…passed on." He swallowed, as though the phrase hurt even to utter. "We both have, actually, but when she saw the article in the paper this morning, she completely flipped." That, of course, earned a glare from Winry and some more attempts to defend herself, but Ed was trying too hard to get answers to waste time with defenses.

"But…the newspaper didn't identify who I was…It just called me a 'living doll' didn't it?"

"That should prove how crazy your absence has made us," said Winry, getting over here defensiveness, and moving to hug Ed again. She rested her flesh cheek on Ed's wooden one. "You're being gone has affected us both severely…I can't always think straight anymore. Though…" she paused and lifted her head a little to look into Edward's golden glass eyes, "That doll heist was still kind of fun." She chuckled. "Heck, it must've been worth it if we could get you back."

Ed smiled. He couldn't agree more. This was where he belonged; even if getting here had shaken him up a bit. He didn't worry too much about it anymore though, not even about Wiry threat to carve out his blood seal. Now that he was calm, he understood that that had just been an idle threat to get him to cooperate, and that she never would have actually done it.

Al sighed contentedly and flopped onto his back, stretching his arms out beside him. "It looks like I got my Christmas wish." He rolled over onto his side and propped his head up with his hand. "And here you always said it was unscientific, Brother."

Ed closed his eyes and laughed, and then opened them again and looked at Al. "It is. The only reason it came true is because Mom and I were both there, listening to your silent wish. Together, we made your wish a reality."

Al lifted his chin off his hand and stared at Ed for a good while before responding. He had to make sure he had heard that right. "You said…MOM and you were there?" Ed smiled and gave an affirmative. Al's mouth opened wide in an 'O' shape. "She…she was there? And…how did you two hear the wish? I never said it out loud. What are you guys, angels?"

At this, Ed threw back his head and had to laugh. He knew that he was anything but angelic. He just happened to love his little brother was all. "We're hardly angels, Al. We just didn't want to see your wish go unanswered, so we found a way to make it work. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly how involved she was, because she rarely manifested, but she'd said she'd watch my back, so I'm sure she's been watching us."

"So," ventured Winry, not sure if she should butt into the conversation, but decided to take the chance regardless, "What did you wish for, Al?" Ed and Al simultaneously turned to look at Winry, and then turned to face each other, as though trying to decide who should say, since it was apparent that they both knew the answer to her question. Muffled laughter erupted from the two of them at the realization of what they were doing.

Ed then turned to Winry and said, "He wished that I would come back for Christmas." Winry stared blankly at Ed for a moment before even justifying that with a reaction, and then turned her attention to Al, who just nodded and shrugged. He obviously didn't know how Ed knew either.

At seeing this, Ed had to laugh. Man, Al and Winry both sure made for great entertainment, and if you threw a troublemaker like Ed into the mix, the possibilities for various kinds of amusement would be endless. But then, Ed was easily amused anyway, at least when Al and Winry were concerned. "It's just a ghost thing, you two. The spirit world seems to communicate telepathically. That's how Mom and I communicated half the time, and that's how we both heard your wish."

Al let a grin slide across his face. "So that's how you guy did it, huh? Darn, I was hoping that you were angels." The way that Al was grinning told everyone that Al was obviously being sarcastic. Heck, they weren't even sure whether angels existed or not, but if they did, they all knew that Ed was the least likely candidate. All at once, everyone started laughing, leaving a confused expression on Al's face. Oh, he was laughing with the rest of them, he just didn't quite know what he was laughing at. "So," said Al, ceasing his laughter, "Brother, can you still hear my thoughts telepathically?"

"Not since I was bound into this doll body," said Edward, "Having a body of any kind seems to make me be 'alive' and cuts off my connection to the spirit world." Al nodded his understanding, sighed, and sat back as though thinking for a moment. No one was sure whether they should ask him what he was up to or not, so they just chose to try and wait it out until Al decided to tell them.

Finally, Al stood up, smiled, and turned around so that his back was towards Ed and Winry, and he was facing the mantle. He had one of his famous childish grins on his face. Al turned and looked at the candles still lining the top of the mantle, and then back to Ed and Winry on the floor. "I think I've got one more wish to make." Ed wanted to scoff about the unscientificness of wishing on Christmas candles, but he held his tongue. After all, Al's previous wish HAD come to pass, even though it was only because he and Trisha were listening in. Now Ed wasn't capable of hearing Al's wish, but Trisha certainly was. There was always the possibility of her hearing Al's new wish and somehow bringing it to pass.

Al took a match, swiped it on the bricks of the fireplace, and then proceeded to light as many of the candles as he could before the flame got too close to his fingers and he had to extinguish it. It there was one thing he'd learned over the years, it was not to waste anything, not even matches. After lighting the first few candles and extinguishing the match, Al picked up one of the candles and used it to light the rest. He set it back down in its place on the mantle, and then stepped back and sighed. Al closed his eyes for a few moments while everyone else in the room was left to wonder what he could possibly be wishing for. Finally, he opened his eyes again, took a deep breath, and blew out all the candles in one shot. He smiled at that. He was kind of superstitious about not getting all the candles out in one breath.

Al turned around and looked into the puzzled faces of Ed and Winry who had been watching him the whole time, trying to figure out what else there could possibly be to wish for. Ed opened his mouth and asked the question that they were both dying to ask, but they knew they wouldn't get an answer to anytime soon. "What did you wish for?" Al turned to look at Ed and raised an amused eyebrow. Oh yes, everyone knew that Al would never tell what he had wished for until he had gotten his wish, but they couldn't help but ask, just in case he'd change his mind.

"If I tell you, it won't come true." Ed and Winry both rolled their eyes and laughed. They had expected as much from Al. All the same, it was so nice to be back amongst his two best friends, quirks and all. Heck, one's quirks were oftentimes what made them so lovable. Ed had his own, for that matter, and he grinned maliciously at the thought, making the other two people in the room wonder about him. Suddenly, without any sort of warning, Ed jumped up, wrapped his arm around Al's neck, and threw him to the floor. Al gasped for breath and said, "Brother…what the heck?"

Ed started giggling and couldn't seem to make himself stop, so he just decided to try and talk in spite of it. "I've wanted to be able to do that again for the longest time!"

Now it was Al's turn to take on a malicious grin. He turned his head to face Edward and said, "Is that so?" He slowly picked himself back up and dusted himself off. Ed looked a bit nervous, wondering what Al was going to do. Al once again looked up at him, grinned his child-like, mischievous grin, and said, "You're gonna regret that, Brother." No further words were uttered by either boy as Al charged at Ed, knocking him to the ground. Ed struggled and flailed beneath Al's weight, and the both of them were giggling like crazy maniacs.

Winry stood nearby, an annoyed look on her face, and she propped herself up against the wall with an elbow. "You guys are going to break something if you don't cut it out…probably Ed!" The boys continued to roll around, wrestling on the floor, almost not paying any attention to the girl…except that Al did manage to say that if he broke Ed, he'd fix him. That wasn't exactly what Winry was longing her hear. Just then, Den came running into the room. Seeing the fight, he started barking and bounding around like he was a puppy again, trying to help the fight along in any way possible. Winry stood back and sighed. "You know, Den, you're really not helping." The dog paid no mind, and so Winry gave up and walked into the other room, muttering something about boys never growing up.

The next few days passed all too quickly, as everyone was enjoying being around each other so much. Finally, Christmas Day arrived, and everyone was eagerly opening the presents they had stocked under the tree. Even Ed had presents that Al and Winry had gotten for him before he had died. They were for the most part useless to him now, but they had still wrapped them up for Ed so that he could experience the thrill of unwrapping Christmas presents. Ed didn't care if the gifts were useless to him or not, frankly. He was just having a good time unwrapping them to see what was hidden inside. He knew that he could always give his gifts to someone who would have a use for them later.

Ed, Al, and Winry had finally unwrapped all their presents and flopped back onto the floor amidst boxes, ribbons, and crumpled pieces of wrapping paper. Ed sighed with contentedness. Being here on Christmas Day felt so heavenly, especially since he wasn't technically even supposed to be alive anymore. He wanted to relish this moment as long as possible. Ed turned to face Al, who was playing with a tie Winry had given him that he could swear was made out of auto-mail. Ed smiled and decided to take on a whiny tone of voice just for the heck of it. "Isn't there anything more to unwrap?"

Al looked over at him, smiled, and then turned back to his odd-looking tie. "Without unwrapping people, I don't know, but you can look."

Ed shot AL an amused sort of glare and said with a definite laugh in his voice, "Unwrap people? Al, you're a pervert!"

"I am not!" defended Al, "I was just stating the facts!" Ed started laughing really hard as he sat up to take another look under the tree. Winry seemed completely oblivious to the boys' conversation. That was probably for the best, but it was quite a puzzle as to how she could tune them out so well. Practice, probably.

"Hey, what's this?" Ed reached under the tree and pulled out a small little box no bigger than his hand. Al shrugged, saying that he didn't remember it, and Winry excitedly began asking Ed to hurry up and open it so that she could see what it was. Ed watched the crazed girl for a moment, which only made her go more crazy since she wanted him to open the present, not watch her. Ed laughed and turned back to the little box. It DID have his name on it, but neither Al nor Winry claimed to be the giver, and he of all people was not about to give Santa Claus the credit.

His fingers itched to dig into the wrapping paper surrounding this little box. He took a deep breath, said, "Here we go!" and began tearing the paper to shreds. At last, he finally had it off, and Al and Winry were hunched over the box, trying to be the first one to get a glimpse of what was inside. In great anticipation, Ed slowly opened the box. The waiting was antagonizing…but then, that was the whole point, wasn't it?

At last, Ed had the box completely open, and the three of them were staring at what was inside, trying to make out what it was. It appeared to be a small ball of white light that just hovered in place, but logically, that couldn't have been what it was. It would have to have been something else, something scientifically explainable. All the same, Ed's logic still wasn't overriding his natural tendency to be nervous, and he slowly extended a shaky hand toward the ball of light to prove to himself that it was nothing to be afraid of.

As soon as Ed touched it, the ball of light lifted itself up on its own velocity and plunged itself into Edward's chest, knocking him to the ground. He tried to sit back up, but his arms, chest, and soon his entire body was vibrating so badly that he had no control over his own body. Ed was tossed around, convulsing on the floor, completely at the mercy of whatever force this was that had possessed him. "Al…" he managed to shout while his whole body was shaking, "Does this have something to do with your wish? What are you doing to me?"

Al gasped and his eyes opened wide. His wish? He hadn't even thought of that possibility, yet it was certainly possible. "Brother," he said, if this has anything to do with my wish, there's nothing to fear, but you have to let go." Ed ignored him and continued struggling to regain control, but his spazzing was only getting worse. "Brother, listen to me," Al shouted over the noise that Ed was making with his thrashing about, "I would never made a wish that would be harmful to you in any way. Please just relax, and trust me…trust Mom."

Apparently, that last statement had finally gotten through to Ed, and he flopped onto his back and tried to just relax and let go. If there was anyone in the world he could trust, it was Al and Trisha. He was still shaking, but not as badly as before, and he was beginning to feel a warmth grow inside of him which was growing bigger and bigger and…

Suddenly there was an explosion of white light. It was so bright that it completely enshrouded Ed, hiding him from view. Al and Winry turned to look the other way. The light hurt their eyes too much to watch whatever was going on. Winry turned to Al and said in a loud stage whisper, "What the heck was it that you were wishing for?"

Al smiled back at her, all the while shielding his eyes from the light. "You'll see."

Before long, another explosion was heard, and the irritating light was gone from sight, though there was still a soft glow that they could detect before even turning around to look. They turned around to see what had become of Edward, and found, to their surprise, that he wasn't there! Winry shrieked, naturally thinking the worst, but Al remained calm and looked around, sure of what had really happened. After a moment, he tapped Winry's shoulder and said, "Look, up there!" He pointed up above them towards the ceiling, and Winry followed his gaze, only to once again have her jaw drop.

Up near the ceiling, slowly floating back down to the ground was what appeared to be the most beautiful being Winry had ever seen. They were clothed in the purest of white robes which were so clean that there was a supernatural glow hovering around the entire body. Loose white ribbons lazily drifted here and there, as though blown by the wind, even though there was none inside the house. Their hair was gracefully flowing past their face and down their back, and two huge white wings towered over everything else, overshadowing them with their beauty.

"An…angel?" asked Winry hesitantly, not sure if she should believe what her senses seemed to be telling her. Al nodded, smiling, and then pointed back at the majestic being, telling her to look closer. Winry turned back to see the angel, and finally took a good look at its face. Its eyes were closed as though unconscious, but the other features of the face were unmistakable. Winry jumped up in excitement and reached her hand up to try and touch this being that was slowly descending to earth. "It's Ed!" she shouted, "I can't believe it! Ed's an angel!"

Upon hearing his name, the angelic being finally opened his eyes and was quite surprised to find out where he was. He looked at his hands, which long longer looked wooden or ghostly, or even like flesh. It was something completely different. He then looked away from his hands down to the two people who were staring up at him from the floor. "Al…? Winry…? How did I get all the way up heeeeeere…" Confusion caused him to lose his balance, and he suddenly plummeted down to the ground, landing atop Al and Winry, who had been unlucky enough to have been standing directly underneath him. So much for angelic dignity.

After the three of them had caught their breath, which Ed was surprised he could even do, he picked himself and the other two up and apologized for having landed on them, and then proceeded to ask what the heck was going on. Al opened his mouth to try and explain, but before he could do so, Ed felt a pair of gentle hands on his shoulders. "You're an angel, Edward. Al made a wish that you could become an angel instead of having to go back as a doll or a ghost, both of which made you miserable." Ed and Al cautiously turned around to identify the intruder, and found themselves looking into the beaming face of Trisha Elric. The especially shocking thing about the encounter was that she now sported a pair of white wings even larger than Edward's and her natural glow was much more vibrant than his. She was also wearing a mahogany colored robe with gold ribbons dancing around her in the same way that Edward's white ones were. She looked just like how one would picture a Christmas angel.

"M-Mom?" Edward began to say, once again choking up, "Y-You're an angel too?"

Trisha smiled and inched her arms around Edward in an embrace. "I've been an angel since shortly after I passed on, Edward, but I wasn't allowed to tell you until just now." She stopped talking for a brief moment and began to stroke Edward's hair in a very motherly fashion. "That was why you couldn't bring me back. I'm so sorry." She gave him a sad, gentle smile, and then opened her arms to pull Al into the ground hug as well. "My little boys are all grown up."

No one said anything for a few minutes, as Ed and Al were just enjoying Trisha's company. Finally, Trisha let them both go, and stepped back. "Now," she said, "I need to explain the reason I'm here." She motioned for everyone to sit down, which they did, even though Ed found it a little bit difficult with his wings in the way. She smiled at the attempt, and then began to speak again. "Edward, you're probably aware that you're nowhere near ready to be an angel." Edward hesitantly nodded acknowledging that she was right. She then continued. "However, you are one because we have made a special exception in your behalf. While you won't be have to attain a full-fledged angel status for quite some time, you will be given the opportunity to train under other with more experience until you're finally ready to go out on your own."

Ed chuckled. "So does that mean that I'm an Angel in Training?"

Trisha smiled. "Yes, that's exactly what that means."

Winry was sitting nearby, her face wet with tears. Trisha knelt down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Winry, what's the matter, sweetheart?"

"Winry lifted up her tearstained face towards Trisha's angelic one and said, "This is all so beautiful…but I'm going to miss Ed so terribly much."

Trisha smiled understandingly and put her arms around the girl. "You won't have to be separated from him, sweetie. We angels have already talked it over and have decided that it would be alright to allow him to visit anytime he wants as long as he's not in a training session and as long as he follows the rules."

At this, Al and Winry both began crying and hugging everyone in sight. This was so much more than either of them had hoped for. Neither one of them had dared dream that things would turn out this well. Trisha smiled again and walked back to where Edward was. She took his hand and looked into his eyes. "Well, Edward, are you ready for your first lesson on how to be an angel?" Edward smiled by seemed a bit hesitant to nod as he looked back over at Al and Winry. How long would he be leaving them? As if reading his thoughts once again, Trisha smiled and said, "Don't worry, you can come back to visit later today, and it'll still be Christmas. You just need to learn the basics on how to conduct yourself as an angel before you even do that."

Ed once again looked at Al and Winry, who both smiled and nodded at him. Ed turned back to Trish and nodded at her saying he was ready. The angelic woman smiled and then placed her hands on his shoulders. She closed her eyes, and Ed could feel his energy shifting within him. He looked at his mother and then back at himself and noticed that they were both starting to disappear. This was certainly going to be an interesting experience traveling from place to place like this. Just before they vanished, Ed turned back to the other two in the room and waved, while also saying, "Thank you, Al, I appreciate so much what you've done for me. I'll be back soon, okay?"

The two angels vanished before AL had time to answer, but that didn't faze him. He just responded anyway. "You're so welcome, Brother, and I'm glad that things worked out the way they did. We can't wait for your arrival back home, so come back soon."

Al and Winry then turned to face each other in silence for a moment, and then simultaneously burst out laughing and threw their arms around each other. This had most certainly been the best Christmas ever, there was no doubt about it. Ed, Al, and Winry had overcome impossible odds to be reunited with each other.

Al and Winry heard a whine come from a few feet away and looked up to find a lonely dog staring at them. Winry laughed and said, "You too, Den." At that remark, Winry could almost swear that the dog had started grinning from ear to ear and he charged at them, barking and bounding around like he was still a puppy. Al more than happily accepted the challenge and began play wrestling with the dog, though letting the dog win, since he wasn't young anymore.

Winry sighed and shook her head in disbelief. Boys, it seemed, whether human, dog, or angel just never seemed to grow up. She listened for a few moments to the laughter and the barking coming from the two and chuckled. She grabbed a pillow off the couch and threw it at Al, giving Den an advantage due to the distraction. "Count me in!" she yelled as she leapt into the wriggling heap of dog vs. boy. So boys never seemed to grow up, being mature was overrated anyway.

**_Great, I finish one fic and leave it in a perfect place for a sequel, which you'll all probably start begging me to make, heh. I probably shouldn't start such a sequel anytime soon, since I have SO many other stories to finish, but feel free to drop suggestions on what you'd like to see happen._**

**_Anyway, thanks so much for following me all this way to the end of the story, and I hope that you have a nice day. Take care!_**

**_P.S. Surprised that I didn't have Ed die in this fic? Actually, I'm surprised too. I was planning to, but I guess that this one wanted to live, hehe._**


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